Phoenixville discusses hiring police officer at high school

PHOENIXVILLE — After canceling the program several years ago, the Phoenixville Area School Board is considering bringing back a school resource officer at the high school.

At the board’s workshop meeting Thursday, Betsy Ruch, chairwoman of the personnel committee, said a conversation was held at the committee level about bringing in a police officer to serve in Phoenixville Area High School.

“We decided to bring it forward to the board,” Ruch said.

Paying the Phoenixville Police Department to station a police officer in the high school worked well for a while, but problems developed in the final years of the program, Ruch said.

The program ended around 2010.“It has worked out and sometimes it hasn’t,” she said. “The first two (officers) were very, very good and some of the people at the high school would feel very much better if we had somebody in that capacity there.”

Phoenixville Police Chief Bill Mossman said Sgt. Brian Marshall was the original school resource officer in the district.

“He set the high-water mark that nobody can achieve,” Mossman said. “That quality’s difficult to get. He could work all by himself. He didn’t need someone looking over his shoulder. He was an intelligent guy, he could speak to the educators up there.”

Marshall’ successor as the school resource officer, Lance Frost, was also valuable, Mossman said.

“It was a good community outreach thing,” Ruch said. “Kids felt comfortable talking with this guy. And (the police) did get tips. But I think everybody felt safe.”

Part of the problem, according to Ruch, was a grant funding the position went away.

Mossman said a new funding system would have to be devised that would be fair to all sides. He said the district funded the school resource officer for nine months of the year when they used him. However, the officer couldn’t take vacation time during those nine months.

As such, the three summer months, busy crime periods, the police funded the school resource officer but effectively lost him to vacation time.

Additionally, board member Paul Slaninka said there were some issues with officers toward the end of the program using the time while they were on duty to study for college or real estate exams.

One of the reason’s why Marshall worked out so well in the position was the fact that he was a “sergeant in charge of nobody,” Mossman said. Marshall did not have a patrol platoon he was responsible for and, outside of filling in for other sergeants, could devote all the time he wanted to the school district.

But an officer might find himself with nothing to do during his shifts if there aren’t any laws being broken in the school or district.

“The school resource officer is there to enforce the law,” Mossman said. “He’s not there to be a disciplinarian for the school. That’s what the teachers and administrators can do, they give detentions and suspensions.”

For example, Mossman said, a police officer in the district couldn’t necessarily patrol the halls to make sure students went to class.

“Somebody brings in marijuana, there’s threats, there’s fighting: he’s there to fight crimes and prosecute,” Mossman said. “If the kids are behaving pretty well, he may have some time on his hands.”

The idea of bringing in a school resource officer appeared to be driven by a concern for school safety.

“Is this reactionary to what happened in Connecticut or is this something we really need?” asked board member Kenneth Butera.

“I think it’s a little bit of both,” Ruch said.

Slaninka said if a resource officer were brought back, it might not be best to expand it to all schools in the district, not just the high school.

One of the main points board members made was that they’d like for the district to have better control of a resource officer.

“It would have to be someone totally devoted to us and not paid by someone else,” board Vice President Jan Potts said. “It has to be our person who works under the school district.”

Board member Dan Cushing posed whether the district actually wanted a police officer or some other kind of officer in the schools.

“Are we looking for protections, someone that’s trained for protection, or are we looking for a police officer in the building?” Cushing asked. “What is it we need?”

Mossman attributed some of the demise of the original program to changes in leadership at the district and the changing of resource officers.

“We just basically, over the years, ran through officers, one after the other after the next,” Mossman said. “Not only did we have a rapid succession of school resource officers, the school had a rapid succession of superintendents.”

If the district were to hire a police officer, strong communication of responsibilities between the officer, the district and the police department would be paramount.

A desire to be there, like Marshall had, is also a strong plus, according to Mossman.

“You want somebody who really wants to do the job,” he said. “Most of the guys who want to be police officers want to be on patrol.”

Were the district to come to the police department for a school resource officer, Mossman said he’d need to hire a new police officer.

“If the school were to approach us, I would not want to consider taking of the officers I have right now and assign them to do that,” Mossman said. “I consider myself a man short. I need to expand it by one to have a man (for a resource officer).”

The question of the school resource officer will be discussed further in committee, according to Ruch.